Years ago, with her conscience weighing on her, Ella Mae Dicks tried confessing to a church group, telling them about the grisly slaying in rural Indiana 27 years ago. But it wasn't until late last fall that she walked into a police station and admitted her involvement in the killing of Sherry Lee Gibson, 23, on March 1, 1975, in a farmhouse outside Monroe City, Ind. She also implicated her former husband, Wayne G. Gulley of Peoria, according to...

Years ago, with her conscience weighing on her, Ella Mae Dicks tried confessing to a church group, telling them about the grisly slaying in rural Indiana 27 years ago. But it wasn't until late last fall that she walked into a police station and admitted her involvement in the killing of Sherry Lee Gibson, 23, on March 1, 1975, in a farmhouse outside Monroe City, Ind. She also implicated her former husband, Wayne G. Gulley of Peoria, according to...

When Frank and Sharon Racibozynski talk about the loss of their daughter, Andrea, they borrow an analogy they heard a priest deliver recently. Life is like a book, the priest had said. You understand more and more as you progress through it, but every once in a while you come to a passage that cannot be interpreted. In such instances, he said, you can only mark the chapter and wait for the meaning to be revealed at the book's conclusion. "We have to fold this page...

A Knox County, Ill., judge on Tuesday granted a continuance in the legal proceedings against Clyde A. Best, delaying the start of his murder trial until at least April. Best of Las Vegas, who is accused of killing Andrea Racibozynski of Naperville at Knox College in Downstate Galesburg, was to be tried beginning Feb. 8. Knox County officials said Best's attorneys asked for the delay for more time to review mental evaluations performed on Best by specialists for the state, and...

A Knox County, Ill., judge on Tuesday granted a continuance in the legal proceedings against Clyde A. Best, delaying the start of his murder trial until at least April. Best of Las Vegas, who is accused of killing Andrea Racibozynski of Naperville at Knox College in Downstate Galesburg, was to be tried beginning Feb. 8. Knox County officials said Best's attorneys asked for the delay for more time to review mental evaluations performed on Best by specialists for the state, and...

After living much of her 47 years in southwest Cook County, Rose Lewandowski decided to uproot a few years ago and move to a northern Indiana town of 3,100. "Rose told me she moved here . . . to get away from the crime," said a friend, Melissa Andrade. "She told me she was (assaulted) there." Lewandowski, a longtime resident of Bridgeview and a former candidate for village president there, was found dead Monday in her Victorian-style home in Knox, Ind. Friends who missed her for a...

After living much of her 47 years in southwest Cook County, Rose Lewandowski decided to uproot a few years ago and move to a northern Indiana town of 3,100. "Rose told me she moved here . . . to get away from the crime," said a friend, Melissa Andrade. "She told me she was (assaulted) there." Lewandowski, a longtime resident of Bridgeview and a former candidate for village president there, was found dead Monday in her Victorian-style home in Knox, Ind. Friends who missed her for a...

When Frank and Sharon Racibozynski talk about the loss of their daughter, Andrea, they borrow an analogy they heard a priest deliver recently. Life is like a book, the priest had said. You understand more and more as you progress through it, but every once in a while you come to a passage that cannot be interpreted. In such instances, he said, you can only mark the chapter and wait for the meaning to be revealed at the book's conclusion. "We have to fold this page...

A former Oakbrook Terrace man was found guilty Tuesday of a murder 28 years ago, two decades after the man originally convicted of the crime died in prison. A Knox County, Ind., jury convicted Wayne Gulley, 62, of Peoria of the 1975 murder of Sherry Lee Gibson, 23, who was sexually assaulted and stabbed to death in an abandoned farmhouse in rural southwestern Indiana. The jury deliberated about 11 hours Monday and early Tuesday before reaching the verdict around 1 a.m. ...

A body discovered in a southeastern Illinois cornfield was positively identified Thursday as that of a missing Vincennes University student. Sgt. Joe Rhodes, a spokesman for the Evansville post of the Indiana State Police, said dental records were used to identify the body of Erika Elizabeth Norman. Norman, 21, a part-time student who worked as a waitress, was reported missing July 5 and had been the subject of an intense search. A farm worker discovered her body in Lawrence County, Ill., on...

A 12-year-old student saw her father's remains in a gruesome photograph of a drunken-driving crash during a police presentation on the dangers of mixing alcohol and operating a motor vehicle. The girl's mother, Marla Cabbage Higginbotham, said her daughter was traumatized by the experience last month at Holston Middle School. Her attorney, Gregory Isaacs, has urged the Knox County law director's office to investigate. The presentation, shown at the request of school officials,...

Clyde A. Best, the 18-year-old Las Vegas man accused of killing Andrea Racibozynski of Naperville last weekend, has retained a Peoria attorney and co-counsel to represent him, according to Knox County State's Atty. Paul Mangieri. Donald Jackson and co-counsel James Shadid filed an entry of appearance Friday to represent Best, Mangieri said. Best, who has been charged with first-degree murder in the slaying of the 19-year-old Knox College freshman early Sunday, is to appear in Knox County...